Description:
Billy Joe Shaver has endured a chain of traumas that would have sunk lesser beings. First, he lost his mother and wife. Then, in 2000, his son, guitarist, and principal collaborator Eddy died of a drug overdose. Billy Joe himself endured heart surgery. Nowhere is his resiliency more apparent than on this adaptation of tapes from Eddy's never-completed 1996 solo album. Using music already recorded and retaining Eddy's own solo vocals, Billy Joe adds new songs and vocals to instrumental tracks. Awash in Eddy's visceral, eerie guitar, the new lyrics reflect love, mysticism, and spirituality. Billy Joe reflects on the recent past in
Billy Joe Shaver has endured a chain of traumas that would have sunk lesser beings. First, he lost his mother and wife. Then, in 2000, his son, guitarist, and principal collaborator Eddy died of a drug overdose. Billy Joe himself endured heart surgery. Nowhere is his resiliency more apparent than on this adaptation of tapes from Eddy's never-completed 1996 solo album. Using music already recorded and retaining Eddy's own solo vocals, Billy Joe adds new songs and vocals to instrumental tracks. Awash in Eddy's visceral, eerie guitar, the new lyrics reflect love, mysticism, and spirituality. Billy Joe reflects on the recent past in "Eagle on the Ground," ruminates on celebrity in "Fame," and seemingly channels the Hereafter in the otherworldly "Window Rock." Eddy's edgy vocals dominate "Baptism of Fire" and the oddly prescient "If It Don't Kill You." His solo performance on "Necessary Evil," vocally and instrumentally, has the riveting feel of an early Muddy Waters 78. Painful as it is, this stands as a magnificent, even uplifting coda to the Shavers' tragically abbreviated musical collaboration. --Rich Kienzle
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Manufacturer: Compadre Records
Release date: 24 August 2004
Number of discs: 1
EAN: 0616892595021 UPC: 616892595021
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